MikeOxon

Go for it, Mikkel - I've tried to lift as many secrets of 3D printing as I can in my various posts

My secret is out!!! yes, I'm a chocoholic!

Unfortunately, the taste of PLA is not great, so I shall stick to my usual brands

At present, the parts are straight from the printer, Mikkel.  They do slide together pretty closely on their brass tube but I shall probably do some surface fettling before I take it all to the painting stage.

If I were to use this method for a later GWR tank engine, I'd be able to swap over from saddle tanks to panniers just by lifting off the relevant components.  I've already got a couple of spare tanks, after re-prints to improve the appearance of the rivets.

At present, I'm working on the frames and it's useful to be able to 'test assemble' the parts within the computer, before finalising the design for printing.

Mike

Some very inspiring modelling and, for once the human figures don't let things down!  These are really convincing poses, although I'm not sure that method of shunting a cattle wagon would be approved nowadays.  The gender re-assignment surgery also looks to have gone very well.

Mike

5 hours ago, Mikkel said:

............The bunkers are very stylish.

 

I look forward to seeing your creativity applied to the wheels. Three layers perhaps?

I simply could not resist those sweeping curves!

One step at a time - I've not even thought about wheels yet

11 hours ago, Annie said:

............... I might well need to see about some SDR saddle tanks for my presently stalled Cornwall project.

Once you start looking at the details, there's a great deal of variety. For example, although the tanks are shorter on Aurora, they are also wider and spread over the splashers.

My wife kindly took a couple of photos as I drove along Vastern Road, Reading, on Sunday afternoon. 

The 'blotched' bark, clearly visible on the nearer trunks, shows that they are the hybrid known as 'London Plane'.  This tree is a hybrid of American sycamore and Oriental plane, it was first discovered in the 17th century then widely planted in the 18th.  It's special characteristic is that the bark has large scaly plates that peel off to reveal new creamy bark beneath.  This constant renewal of the bark enabled it to thrive in the smoky city streets of 19th century London and in close proximity to railway yards in steam days.

Mike

Very attractive drawings.  That extended cab roof is exactly the type I placed on my 'mythical' Dean 4-2-4T

I accidentally rated my own post 5* by carelessly moving the mouse around - any one know how to remove it?  Someone else had already given it a genuine 5* rating so it's not actually falsified the overall rating,

I recently had a 3D-printing disaster.  The model slipped on the printer bed in my absence and when I returned I found this.  A new way of building rampant undergrowth, birdsnest etc.

Thank you Mikkel.  It's curious how ideas arise by chance events - in this case by someone commenting that boiler diameter is not the same as external diameter over cladding.

This bit of modelling was a spur-of-the-moment idea after a fallow period when I was lacking imagination.  There's a lot to do, to turn it into a complete engine. I don't much like the strange stepladder over the rear wheels on the B&ER engines and may see if I can modify the design to represent one of the SDR engines.

15 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

.... unlike the goods yard, the trees, or some of them, are still there:

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.4615045,-0.9732008,3a,75y,90h,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sQ1qtSldbLGTwm59FiFxX1Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

 

i drive along that stretch of Vastern Road quite frequently so must pay more attention to the trees!  I'm usually concentrating on avoiding the bus lanes, having been caught on camera on the short stretch under the railway bridge  - a good revenue earner I suspect.

I almost missed this.  Tree planting is my wife's expertise but North Leigh could do with an upgrade, so I shall show her your methods - they look very good

That first photo of Vastern Road looks almost like a model - the trees have a surprising regularity of shape.  For some reason, your first sunlit shot seems more like the Mediterranean than Southern England - something about the clarity of the light.

Some unusual wooden picture-frames in the background.

Mike

At first glance I thought these were 7mm scale!  The detailing is very nice indeed for 4mm.  The Aqua Grey resin clearly does a good job.  I thought the 'Aqua' in the name might imply a less toxic material but I see from the data sheet that it still requires careful handling.  That is the aspect that has put me off all these optical cured-resin printers.

One of the things I like about 3D printing is that it's usually easy to correct mistakes.  I'm sure it won't be too difficult to accommodate the rear wheels of your J17.

As a 'spin-off',  I have 3D-printed a cow, based on the same 3-part construction as the original horse model that I described in the post.  It won't walk but it will fill up my Broad Gauge cattle train:

Moo!

Just as I thought no-one was interested, 6 replies all come together - just like buses

So far, I've managed to get a few faltering steps.  It amazes me that what looks like a simple toy should prove so hard to get right.  As I recall, the original 'cereal packet' model worked well, although I can't remember exactly what sort of gait is displayed.  It seems to rely on a side to side rocking motion, so that when the opposite side legs are raised, they swing forward together and shift the balance across.  I've been fiddling with mine for ages and getting frustrated - hence this post.

I'm not too concerned how 'realistic' the gait is but I would like to get the **** thing to work

Mike

U14 it is!   Anything is better than watching penalty shoot-outs.

It looks great whatever diagram it is - I suspect R2.  The trouble with brass models is they look too good to paint

Mike

I think BG buffer spacing was 5' 10", whereas standard gauge is 5' 8".  I realise that the need for extended-width buffers when shunting was mainly because of the offset between the centrelines of BG and standard wagons on mixed-gauge trackwork.

AFAIK, Douglas, BG buffers were of similar diameter to standard gauge, although of course, the spacing was different.  Early buffers were of leather, stuffed with india rubber and horsehair, with iron bands to keep them in shape..  Later GWR designs were standard for both types of stock.  Some shunting engines were fitted with planks to widen the area of the buffer head, so that they could work standard gauge as well as BG stock.

Since writing the above, I came across this post by @Neil which shows the SDJR prototype for these Hornby 4-wheel carriages.  You may well already be aware but I had assumed these models were fictional.

Mike

I picked up one of those Hornby bodies for 50p somewhere - they have nicely moulded sides - and have used it as a line-side office.  You seem to be meeting the challenge of turning it into something rather more than 'half decent'

Thank you Chris - but this one is not really finished either - buffers, door handles, benches inside, and so on...

Thank you, Mikkel.  Various (pleasant) things had distracted me from doing any modelling for a while, so I dashed this one off to keep my hand in

2 hours ago, JCL said:

.................

Getting the best finish out of the printer means getting to know it really well.

..................

That's a very good point, Jason.  When I look back on all the troubles and frustrations I had when starting, it seems amazing that I now simply press the 'go' button and let the machine get on with it.  I'm sure that there are still 'tweaks' that I could make but, for the moment, I'm content.

I also spend some time planning how to orientate the model, so that supports are not needed.  For example, by laying the sides flat on the printer bed, I do not have to support the tops of the window openings.  I have another model under way, where I have deliberately split some components so that I have flat surfaces to lie on the printer bed.

At present, I get a different finish on top layers than below, which shows as a different surface texture within the panels, which I find quite attractive.

Mike

Thank you, Northroader.  Since many railway vehicles are simple slab-sided structures, I find 3D-printing is an excellent way of providing surface detail that would be difficult to achieve by conventional means.